Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson kick off the 11th season of "American Idol" with the opening night auditions in Savannah, Ga. MICHAEL BECKER, FOX

Viewership for the season premiere of "American Idol"' sunk to its lowest level during the official television season, but still drew the second largest audience among this season's prime-time entertainment programs.

The two-hour episode Wednesday chronicling auditions in Savannah, Ga. averaged 21.93 million viewers, 16 percent less than the 26.23 million average for last season's premiere, which had been the lowest during the official television season, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by The Nielsen Co.

However, only the Sept. 19 season premiere of the CBS comedy "Two and a Half Men," which featured the debut of Ashton Kutcher, drew a larger audience among entertainment programs during the 18-week prime-time television season, with 28.74 million viewers.

An hour-long "American Idol" audition episode Thursday averaged 18.02 million viewers, down 21.3 percent from last season's second episode, which averaged 22.9 million viewers. However, it was the fourth most-watched prime-time program between Jan. 16 and Sunday, second among entertainment programs.

Another hour-long audition episode Sunday averaged 19.7 million viewers, but was not counted in the prime-time ratings figures because only three minutes ran in prime time in the Eastern and Central time zones, where the majority of the nation's population lives.

With Sunday's NFC Championship Game averaging 57.64 million, its second-most since 1982 and third-most ever, and the most for any prime-time program this season, Fox averaged 21.25 million viewers for the week, the most for any network since Super Bowl week in 2011.

CBS was second, averaging 9.3 million, followed by ABC, which averaged 6.67 million, and NBC, which averaged 5.78 million.

Fox's football coverage also made it the most-watched network among viewers 50 and older, a group long dominated by CBS. Fox was also first among viewers ages 18-49, the group it, ABC and NBC target and advertisers covet because it watches less television and is harder to reach, 12-17, 18-34 and 25-54.

The week's lone premiere on the four major broadcast networks "Alcatraz" averaged 10.05 million viewers Jan. 16, the most for a Fox drama premiere since "Human Target" debuted on Jan. 17, 2010. It finished third in its 8-10 p.m. time slot and 20th for the week.

CBS had each of the seven most-watched scripted series programs, topped by "The Big Bang Theory," fifth overall, averaging 15.84 million viewers.

NBC drew its largest audience from 8-10 p.m. Monday since September 2009, outside of the Olympics, thanks to Betty White.

A preview of her hidden camera series, "Betty White's Off Their Rockers," averaged 12.26 million, finishing 12th for the week, and also winning its time slot.

ABC, CBS and NBC all aired 22 hours of prime-time programming for ratings consideration for the week and Fox 16 hours.

The MTV documentary series "Jersey Shore," was the week's most-watched cable program, averaging 6.16 million, putting it 49th among the week's prime-time broadcast and cable programs.

With its NFL and college football bowl coverage completed, ESPN's four-week streak as the most-watched cable network in prime time was ended by USA Network, which averaged 2.71 million.

The week's most-watched Spanish language program was the Thursday episode of the Univision telenovela "La Que No Podia Amar" ("The One That Could Not Love"), which averaged 4.77 million viewers, 75th among all prime-time broadcast and cable programs.

Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network as usual, averaging 3.45 million viewers for its prime-time programming. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.27 million viewers, followed by TeleFutura, which averaged 720,000, Estrella TV, which averaged 220,000, and Azteca America, which averaged 200,000.

The "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" finished first among the network nightly newscasts for the 123rd consecutive week and 170th time in the past 171 weeks, averaging 10.25 million viewers.

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